The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1887-04-22
ESSAY ON MUSIC.
By FRANCIS L. RAwsoN.

1t appears quite natural for mankind
to express their feelings by the use Of
modulated sounds. When the Creator
made man He bound up in his soul the
sentiment of concord. The apprecia.
ton of sounds, however, will be govern.
ed by the emotions of the soul. Hence
| it is that the different sounds are varied
as the emotions Of the soul are JOYOUS or
mournful. Man being endowed with
power to enjoy certain forms of sounds,
so he is endowed with imaginations and
reason and memory and love for them.
Man alone reveals the power to discern
the beautiful in any form. A brute will
trample under foot flower, let it be
ever so precious. A beast. if beast of
prey, will scent afar its victim, while the
sweetest perfume and the most refresh
ing odors are unnoticed by him. Notso
with mankind A human child would
run wildly for the demolished flower and
would gladly inhale the delightful per-
fume of it.
When viewing the clustered boughs
that have perchance planted themselves
along the shores of a beautiful river, the
heart of man grows silent and medita-
tive. He sees the bursting forth of
spring and the opening of the blossoms
that SO beautifully decorate the foliage
that seems gown, as it were, to hide
the homely, rugged cliff. And when, in
the autumn, the fading of all their beauty
takes place, this same strange soul
makes within itself a spiritual flow and
ebb of delight and regret, showing us
that the power bestowed upon man to
perceive, produce and love the beautiful,
must have originated through the bene-
violence Of God. The evolutions would
assure us that the love of harmonious
sounds is, to great extent, passion
that may be created by friction of
atoms and energies. Thus by natural
selection from the beginning and gen.
eral appreciation Of the most agreeable
sounds that have been taking place for
thousands of years, man has succeeded
in weaving them into science. And
when the human voice sends forth its
vibrations in melodious tones, this mys-
FERROUS and powerful science asserts itself
to the world as the science of sounds,
classed with the arts as the art of music. |
Earth repeats, in all its departments, the |
law of infancy and of youth and of mid |
die and mature age. But of the arts we
can say that they do not grow old and |
die. 1t is true of them that they have |
had their infancy, but they do not, like |
man, die with old age. Architecture,
when very young, could only build a |
crude structure. But having passed |
through an alphabet of its kind, and |
having been more and more improved |
and perfected in its own workshop, it
has become wonderful, and its achieve
ments of to-day stand exalted by the
world. AS it was with architecture so it
was with drawing and painting and
music. This sentiment or love for the
beautiful, in all its forms, are qualities
of man, in which the image of God was
fashioned when the Creator said, "Let |
us make man to our own image and
likeness" 1t is true that the similarity
existing between art and man has an
ending-that is, the death of the indi-
vidual is not the death of the art he |
loved. Thus while man passes through
The different stages of life and finally
dies and carries with him many tokens
Of natural life time, the arts that have
ever had his appreciation will live on
and are only improved by age. And so |
will it be until the end of time.